GENERATIONS IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS (3)
[p. 411] GENERATIONS IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS (3)
Genesis 6: 9 - 22; Genesis 8: 18 - 22; Genesis 10: 1
JT This section of our subject, for the sake of intelligibility, will need to be divided into two parts. Noah will have to be regarded by himself as the head of a new order of things, according to what he was personally. Then, secondly, in relation to his sons, as blessed with them at the beginning of chapter 9. Then, chapter 10, showing the generations of his sons by themselves, the latter bringing the subject down to the earth as we know it and peopled as it is now. The first part of the subject is the more important, because it opens up personal qualities in Noah, and a covenant made with him; God confiding in him, and a covenant made with him on that account.
The references to Noah in the New Testament are significant, particularly as to the number eight, Peter alluding twice to him under that head, also as a “preacher of righteousness”, and our Lord alluding to him and his days — “the days of Noe” (Matthew 24: 37). Then the writer to the Hebrews brings him before us in relation to his house, and as a builder, also as “heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”. The suggestion is that he and his family represent the idea of a number sufficient for any given enterprise, an idea that runs through Scripture. God has his number, in Noah’s case a very small number called “few”, but sufficient for the undertaking on hand.
So that the deliberate statement of his father, which we noted yesterday, is significant, that is, “he called his name Noah, saying, This one shall comfort us concerning our work and concerning the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah has cursed”. It implies the idea of agricultural toil. The reference to him in our first scripture — “This is the history of Noah” — is to bring out first of all what he was; “a just man, perfect amongst his generations: Noah walked with God”. We have another word introduced here and translated “generations” which would embrace his family connections, so that he was a man of influence. The first word denotes his origin, and what we may expect to be developed out of him, but the second what he was in a practical way. So that, as he represents those whom God uses to do things, he had those moral qualities, what he was amongst his immediate circle.
AMH “Perfect amongst his generations” — is that a kind of local setting? It makes room for development, for use in a universal way; he brings the whole company through.
JT I think so; it is what one is amongst those immediately connected with him and known to him, and one establishes what he is with God in that way — well reported of, like Timothy. It suggests what is needed in those God would use, commendable, one well reported of among the brethren.
PL Does this follow the allusion in Luke 4: “of Adam, of God”, and then would you link up this second reference: “perfect amongst his generations”, with the anointed Vessel in the synagogue at Nazareth?
JT Quite so, the Lord starting out there; one begins with what one is locally. There could be nothing at all added to the Lord’s qualities and manner at Nazareth and yet no result appears, and so with Noah. It is to bring out the perfection of the testimony, though unavailing, to show the conditions under which he had to minister.
HH Would it stand in contrast to the corrupt state of things in the earlier part of the chapter — the sons of God and the daughters of men? Here we have a man “perfect in his generations”.
JT That is the thought, and the public testimony is through him, but the soil was so hard, there was no result. It was no less than the Spirit of Christ in him, in which Spirit, it says, “going he preached to the spirits which are in prison, heretofore disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3: 19, 20).
AJG Does the fact of a perfect testimony without result provide the moral justification for the judgment?
JT That is good. There is no question, the state of the earth was corrupt. We are told that God looked down upon it: “And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was full of violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt”. It is to establish the facts without question, and then we have this testimony brought in in such a vessel, one evidently so disciplined and taught in keeping with chapter 5, that he is a vessel for the Spirit of Christ. It is no less than that, and brings out the real point in service, that it is a question of the Spirit of Christ and our being qualified for that, capable of His acting in us.
HFN Reference has been made to 2 Timothy, and the apostle’s expression: “according to promise of life;” would what follows in that epistle bear upon this? Paul refers to the thought of a “pure conscience”, and then to the generations. Would Noah bring out the great feature of purity in the generation?
JT That is very instructive, and shows how the testimony comes down to us. There are four generations — Paul, Timothy, those he would teach, and others also, the idea of four conveying the universal character of it. I suppose we may humbly come in in the fourth — “others also”. The personal qualities of Noah are outstanding, and deserve particular consideration in view of what was to be done. It is a question of persons who can do things for God and whom God can trust and commit Himself to; so that, from the moral point of view, it is most important to see the generations of [p. 414] Noah, and what we are to learn in his history — from the man personally. As recorded, he finishes his service in blessing. He lived a very long time after the flood, but there is no service recorded of him after chapter 9. The comfort is that he is in the list in Hebrews 11, and it says, “All these died in faith;” so we may safely keep him before us in this inquiry. God would show him as one He could trust in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Although the results may be small, yet there is the testimony to which God attaches great importance.
WW Is that the reason why in Luke 4: 24 the Lord says, “No prophet is acceptable in his own country”? That is on account of the soil.
JT Yes, because nature is so liable to assert itself in those near to you, those to whom you belong naturally.
EuR Would Romans 14: 18 bear on this a little? “For he that in this serves the Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men”. The Spirit of Christ was in Noah, and if we are to be in accord with Him who grew in favour with God and men, we are to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit: “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. There is power available for each one on that line.
JT Quite so. One point in service is not to antagonise people. If the testimony antagonises them, of course we cannot avoid it, but all else should be kept out of view, because the testimony is to men. “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation” (Mark 16: 15). That is to say, the objects of the testimony are those who are abstractly in relation with God, over whom God has rights, and I have no doubt that enters into Noah’s character; he was “perfect amongst his generations”.
HMS Is it because of Noah’s faithful testimony as a preacher of righteousness that he is put together with Daniel and Job in Ezekiel 14: 14 — “these three men”?
JT Men who served, as you might say, in an isolated way — Noah, Daniel, and Job, isolated witnesses, each in his own sphere.
JTS Do we get anything corresponding with this in the passage in Isaiah 49: 4, 26 — Jehovah speaking of His servant, and then the hardness of the soil, in the fact that He has to say, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain”? Then, at the end of the chapter: “And all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer”.
JT That is a feature of the Lord’s testimony, corresponding with Noah, that there was no result. It says “they are like the deaf adder which stoppeth her ear; Which doth not hearken to the voice of enchanters, of one charming ever so wisely” (Psalm 58: 4, 5). The Lord experienced that; it was His Spirit that was in Noah, and then He Himself experienced the same thing. It is an important matter today, because the soil has become similar, and it is more and more difficult to get any results. Those who are working know that, but we are to take on these qualities, and not be irritated or discouraged; as it is said of the Lord in Isaiah 42: 4: “He shall not faint nor be in haste”.
Ques Would you think that Noah’s testimony was more what he was in himself than what he did in building the ark?
JT That a man is more than what he does is a sort of axiom we may accept. It is a question of the man first, and then what he does. So Noah is said to have been moved with fear; that is, he was a pious man. Whilst he was the depository of God’s mind, he feared God. He would be immune from the judgment, but still he feared God, and “prepared an ark for the saving of his house” (Hebrews 11: 7). We have now the household thought brought in.
AMH Would the element of fear help us in preaching? Paul says, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5: 11). Do you think we want that in our hearts?
JT You show to men how you regard God. Even although we know Him in Christ, He is to be feared. “Let us serve God acceptably with reverence and fear” (Hebrews 12: 28). You bear witness to what a man should be in his attitude towards God. So that Joseph, in speaking to his ten brethren, said, “I fear God” (Genesis 42: 18).
AN Do you think that thought is seen in the apostle when he says to the Corinthians, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ, and makes manifest the odour of his knowledge through us in every place. For we are a sweet odour of Christ to God, in the saved and in those that perish: to the one an odour from death unto death, but to the others an odour from life unto life” (2 Corinthians 2: 14 - 16)? I thought perhaps that would bear out what was seen in Noah — a sweet savour to God. It was not to be measured by success or non-success; he was a sweet savour to God.
JT Even in non-success he was a savour, in those that perish as well as those that are saved. That is a great principle begun here — what was for the nostrils of God in the service..
FCH Do Psalm 91 and Psalm 92 help in this matter? The frailty of man, and death, we see in Psalm 90, and then the man in Psalm 91 who is preserved against everything that happens around him, satisfied with length of days. Then, Psalm 92 is ‘A Psalm, a Song, for the Sabbath day’, speaking of the savour of rest in Noah.
JT That is helpful. One develops in that section into “a green olive-tree in the house of God”, “still vigorous in old age, they are full of sap and green” (Psalm 92: 14). Psalm 90 is the acceptance of the conditions and makes room for God.
FCH It supposes the “work of our hands” (verse 17).
Ques Does Noah’s service in this way bring before us one of the most onerous kinds of service, standing for the rights of God without outward support? I was wondering whether the word in Jeremiah 1: 17 would bear upon it. God says, “Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I shall command thee: be not dismayed at them, lest I cause thee to be dismayed before them”. Is that the kind of service you have in mind that God is raising up for today?
JT Noah’s service was a great undertaking, and the man qualified for it develops out of the education of chapter 5, the school of God, and chapter 6 gives us his qualities. The number of his sons is given in chapter 5, as if they were essential to what was in the mind of God, showing how much a man’s house enters into the service. Then, what he was in his generations, and, in order that we may have a clearer view, the New Testament tells us that he was a preacher of righteousness, and that he was moved with fear, and prepared an ark for the saving of his house.
PL In a spiritual way is Paul’s ministry also accredited in his sons, such as Timothy, Titus, and Onesimus? Does he bring them forward?
JT He does; it is the idea of the generation of a man in the sense in which we are speaking of it, how his sons may be essential, whether naturally or spiritually, because there are the three witnesses. Three is a full testimony that what he is extends out in that way.
JSE Would you say just one word as to the bearing of the covenant in chapter 6?
JT The first thing is that God would set out something. It is really the first covenant in Scripture. The prophet Hosea alludes to Genesis 2 in applying the covenant, but it was a forbidding one which Adam transgressed. The idea of covenant is God entering [p. 418] into relation with us, confiding in us as worthy of being in such a relation with Him. The first thing here is that we have a man accredited, and God says to him, “With thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee”. It is “with thee will I establish my covenant;” but in chapter 9 we have a much more extended idea of the covenant and the sign of it. It is not only with Noah and his sons, but with the animals and the earth itself; but here the man is accredited. One of the most touching things is that God enters into a covenant with any one. It is a secret understanding, and I doubt if any servant is of much value until he knows what that word really means, in the bearing of it. It is a secret understanding with God, so that you know how the matter stands, how you are with God, and one begins with the sense of what he is to God. Noah belongs to chapter 5, to that school and family. It is a chapter really of glory, the persons yielding to God. Noah belongs to all that. Enoch is not entrusted with anything; he does indeed prophesy, but there is no special link with him as to any service. He represents another thing; he represents the teaching, but Noah is a development for a purpose; God having him in mind and his three sons. Now he is on easy terms with God, because if one is not on easy terms with God, in the sense of who God is, and how one is in Christ before Him, one is apt to be legal and exacting, and to fail in rightly presenting God in ministry. I think God would encourage every one of us to be on intimate terms with Him secretly, so that we have liberty in regard of God, and if you want anything, do not give Him rest, as the prophet says (Isaiah 62: 7), until it is granted. One has to be on very easy terms with God to approach Him in that way, but God loves that aspect; yet in all that, we serve Him with reverence and godly fear. Noah feared Him; he was “moved with fear”, but particularly with regard to his house, and so he “prepared an ark for the saving of his house”.
EJMcB Do you not think it would give him great comfort, in the midst of a preaching that seemed to have no effect, to have this covenant relation with God and the promise of its effect on his own household?
JT You would speak feelingly — as all of us fathers would — that if we are on easy terms with God, our fears very largely refer to our houses, and in a wider sense to the assembly, as to what may happen. So that as his own relations with God are settled, he is in perfect liberty with God; he can go in at any time and does, yet his anxieties remain, for he has to do with a wide sphere, whether his own house or descendants, or particularly the house of God.
HFN Is that why the great levitical chapter — 2 Corinthians 4 — is preceded by the opening up of the spirit of the covenant? Is that to put the levite on these easy terms with God?
JT In that chapter the apostle says that he had confidence: “I have believed, therefore have I spoken” (2 Corinthians 4: 13).
HMS And in the next chapter the apostle speaks of the “terror of the Lord”. Would that be similar to being moved with fear? Noah prepared an ark for the saving of his house.
JT “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men;” he would convey to men what terror really is, what form it should take in their hearts. One anticipates the thing, and even although his relations with God are settled, he is still here and in danger, and he conveys to others in his service the reverence that is due to God.
EuR In Deuteronomy 29: 27 - 29 it says in regard of Jehovah, “And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curse that is written in this book; and Jehovah rooted them out of their land in anger, and in fury, and in great [p. 420] indignation, and cast them into another land, as it appears this day. The hidden things belong to Jehovah our God; but the revealed ones are ours and our children’s for ever, to do all the words of this law”. Would that correspond, that in spite of these solemn warnings we are to have hope in relation to our children continuing in the testimony as governed by the covenant?
JT So that fear is quite compatible with confidence and assurance as to your house, and as to the testimony.
MWB Is so much said as to Noah’s moral condition and exercises, because he had to do with a scene of confusion and carry over what was of God out of it?
JT To carry all that is of God through the judgment; what a man is needed for that! So that God prepares those who serve in view of what is needed. He knows what is needed, and the discipline, the learning as in chapter 5, is in view of what is needed. Enoch’s education and experience fitted him for translation, but he would not be equal to Noah’s service. Yet Noah was fitted in the same school for a great undertaking.
MWB Is the non-success that has been referred to, as a sweet odour in Corinthians, in like manner seen here? God said, “The end of all flesh is come before me”. The removal was pleasurable to God, as well as the extrication of those who were to be brought over.
JT They were a remnant really, and their number is given — eight — but it is a question now of a flood on the world of the ungodly. It is not death as seen in the school (chapter 5), but for destruction. Death is brought into the school as an element of teaching, but when death is brought in on the world of the ungodly it is a different matter; it is not a question of teaching then, but destruction. Well, how is a man to go [p. 421] through that? It is as he learns in the school; he is taught to do with death in the school.
Ques Does he take on the Spirit of Christ, as seen in Hebrews, when it says, “Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications and entreaties to him who was able to save him out of death, with strong crying and tears; (and having been heard because of his piety;)” (Hebrews 5: 7)?
JT How the Lord graciously links on with us in that! He is classed with the pious; He was heard because of His piety.
Ques With regard to the covenant with ourselves, does Paul illustrate it for us when he says, “whose I am and whom I serve”?
JT Quite so. The ark Noah built enters into the covenant made with him. The covenant is usually that God enters into relations with us — not for evil but for good; and so the ark was essential to it. First we have the direction as to the ark, and then God said, “But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee: they shall be male and female. Of fowl after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of each shall go in to thee, to keep them alive. And take thou of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee, that it may he for food for thee and for them”. Then we are told in the next chapter that the creatures came unto Noah into the ark. All is directed to thee and to Noah. God has taken him on for a great matter and would have him in liberty with Himself morally, and now He is calculating for him in every respect: as if God said, ‘I am going to make Noah head of a new order of things, a world I have in mind, and so he must be assured of My confidence in him’.
Rem “With him” is the characteristic word of chapter 7, as in verse 23, “and what was with him”.
JT I would like to say a little more about “with him”, for servants are apt to be too isolated and think too much of what happens, instead of what they bring to men. In connection with the shipwreck in Acts 27: 24, it is said, “God has granted to thee all those that sail with thee”. That is, God thinks of you and your exercises and desires for the saints, and those exercises and desires usually enter into one’s prayers. Our prayers are governed by our desires, and if one is large enough to include the whole area of God’s interests on earth, what a man he would be for God! You ask in that relation, and so you find that things are done according to what you desire. It may take time, but it will happen; God will never forget your prayers, however wide they go.
MWB Even if it takes time it is no loss of time to spend it in prayer.
JT just so, and time enters into what God is doing. The time may be long or short, and God measures time. He it is that has inaugurated time, and He used time first, too. So we must not be discouraged if things seem long and apparently delayed, because God is in the delay, and something is being formed. It is all in relation to you, if you have been praying about it. Chapter 5 is the great school chapter and death is prominent in it, and who knows what preceded what we are speaking of in Noah?
EuR So those who sail with Paul will reach land.
JT “All those that sail with thee:” what agonies must have marked them in that ship!
Ques Does this come to light in connection with Moses? It says in Exodus 6: 9 that the people “did not listen to Moses from anguish of spirit”, and then in that chapter prominence is given to Moses and Aaron, as it is said, “this is that Moses and Aaron”.
[p. 423] Then later Jehovah says to Moses in the day that He sent him, “I am Jehovah”.
JT Quite so. What agonies Moses and Aaron must have had in view of the attitude of the children of Israel at first! But in due course they get influence, and God acted with them. So there is a steady expansion in a servant’s outlook as he is with God. God works with him, and says, ‘All this is in relation to you’. But then he is carrying out the testimony of God all the time, and it all fits perfectly into the divine scheme.
PL It is seen in its perfection in the Lord in Mark’s gospel; His groans, and the scene in Gethsemane emphasising His agony; then going up to the right hand of God finally, and the word going out to every creature.
JT How wide is the prayer in John 17 immediately before His death! How it extends down to our own time! — so that the circle ever widens. Christianity is the answer to the Lord’s own prayer — ever widening.
WJ Does the name of Noah’s last son indicate to him the light of what God would do, bringing in enlargement?
JT It is in mind to have the names of the sons of Noah under review. Japheth undoubtedly has in view the assembly; that is to say, christianity, particularly in these last days, in the great spreading out of the European countries, and in all of them, thank God, there has generally been an opening for the gospel. I suppose Japheth was the eldest son. J. N. D. regards him so. We shall come to Shem later, not as related to the other two sons, but by himself, for Shem is the line of blessing.
FSM With regard to the character of Noah’s service, it says four times that he did as “Jehovah had commanded him”. Does obedience enter into this feature of service? I was thinking of the word of Paul in regard to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry [p. 424] which thou hast received in the Lord, to the end that thou fulfil it” (Colossians 4: 17). Noah seemed to pursue in obedience to the commandment of Jehovah until he had accomplished all that He had commanded him, and that was a very strong feature in the salvation of his house.
JT I am glad you have brought that in, because servants are apt to take a great deal of latitude. In connection with the great servants, Paul and Barnabas, when sent out on their first mission, it is said, that they fulfilled it: “the work which they had fulfilled” (Acts 14: 26). They did not go beyond it and they were not behind. It is a great point as to service that we are governed by the will of God, for after all, the matter is more to Him than to us, and nothing is ever gained by taking licence. Christendom is an evidence of taking licence.
Ques Do we see that with Philip? At a time when he was very successful in service he heeded the voice of the Spirit, and went down to the desert to one man?
JT That is an excellent illustration of it, and I am sure it is a point of the last importance for any seeking to serve the Lord, that we do not take licence, or think that we can do better than what is the will of God.
HPW Is that why the exact measurements of the ark are given?
JT Yes. God is a God of measure, and Paul makes a point of that; he was governed by measure in his service. It was a measure that went as far as the Corinthians, whereas there were others without that measure, taking on another man’s line of things. So that Romans 12: 3 is, in this sense, what is to govern the servant: “as God has dealt to each a measure of faith”. I should have faith, that is my side, but God deals to each a measure of faith.
CAC Is this the working out in a practical way of the power of [p. 425] life?
JT You mean that life is in Noah, but regulated by this principle of measurement and commandment?
CAC Yes, and life in the sense of power to carry out what is the will of God in relation to His testimony.
JT So that life is another element that enters into what we are speaking of. The ark is replete with life in great variety. Romans treats of life as potentiality or power: “the Spirit life on account of righteousness” (Romans 8: 10).
CAC I wondered whether you had in mind that there was progressive spiritual instruction in these different generations.
JT I hope we shall see that. There are ten specific generations in the book, and the teaching is undoubtedly constructive. In chapter 2 we have the great general thought of fulness before sin came in, culminating in the assembly in type. Then, sin having come in, we have the moral question taken up, and in “the book of Adam’s generations” we have life developed and death used to make room for it. That is, God showing, in the book of life, as it may he called — for it is that — how life goes through in the school, and that it is developed as life should be. Whether in plant life, or life in the lower creatures, or in human life, it should be developed under control and tuition. That being established in chapter 5 and God glorified — for it is there we get the splendour of God and refinement, how it works out in His own — we see the traits of life in His people effected through discipline. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, takes on the whole thought in the chapter, being seen as made fit for heaven.
AMH Do you refer to Mahalaleel in speaking of the splendour of God?
JT Yes. What a thought that is! And what an incentive to us to be in the school of God and let death have its full force upon us as used of God in [p. 426] discipline. So His glory shines out in His people, and then a man is developed out of that who is able to do things, able to go through a great crisis successfully and in power.
CAC And to carry all that is for the pleasure of God through the darkest possible time.
JT With little encouragement from those whom he would serve. One can understand how patiently Noah would serve his fellow men all that time. He had been trained for it, so that he carried on, I suppose, during all the time he was building the ark. It must have been under great reproach, and he had no outward success, but there was moral success. What growth there must have been there! If he was not attractive to his fellow men, he became the centre of attraction for the lower creation; all the creatures were attracted, for it is mentioned that they came to him; there was a link between him and them.
PL Do you get the idea with the Lord in His rejection? “I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me” (John 12: 32).
JT Quite so. When the dove came back to the ark, Scripture says, “he ... brought her to him into the ark;” there was a link between them. It was a feature of life. Then there is the great feature of the house in what Noah built on the principle of the covenant, with the consequent relations with God in the whole matter; the ark was for the saving of his house. What experience there was in all this! and surely it is written for us as in the Lord’s service.
GVS “Take thou of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee, that it may be for food for thee and for them”. Would that show that nothing was to be impaired, but everything sustained?
JT Yes. The whole realm of life is sustained: “for thee and for them”. You have a secret understanding with God and all this is going on in that relation,
[p. 427] but it is working out the counsels of God, too, His own thoughts.
Ques In Matthew 5: 1, 2 it says that the Lord “went up into the mountain, and having sat down, his disciples came to him; and, having opened his mouth, he taught them”. Would that be in line with this?
JT Matthew has that in mind.
JJ Would you say something about the number eight?
JT It has its place, as already said, being significantly alluded to by Peter, who treats of the government of God and what goes over. Enoch represents the complete exercise of chapter 5, qualifying for heaven. He is the seventh from Adam, that is the complete result of the exercise, and Noah goes over; this would be involved in the numeral eight. I think Peter has in mind what is beyond christianity; his second epistle particularly treats of what is beyond, and that is the idea of eight — what goes beyond for God.
EuR Would Enoch in that way fit in with 1 Thessalonians, preparing us for the rapture, and Noah with 2 Thessalonians, the “love of the truth”, receiving instruction, and then the prayer in the first verse of chapter 3, with a view to the word of the Lord being glorified?
JT 2 Thessalonians contemplates the rise of antichrist, and it is a question of our getting the benefit of something we shall not have to go through; we surely ought to get the benefit of the teaching. “For the mystery of lawlessness already works; only there is he who restrains now until he be gone, and then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2: 7, 8). Surely it is for us as teaching, and I think Peter’s epistles are to teach us, that we may get the benefit of the whole range of the government of God.
PL So the expression, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience”, to Philadelphia, would cover the instruction, and then, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial which is about to come upon the whole habitable world”, would be the assurance of our escaping from the actual circumstances.
JT We are entitled to believe that promise — that we are to be kept out of the hour of trial.
GM With regard to your remark as to a servant not taking licence, had you any particular thing in mind that we are in danger of in the way of licence today?
JT It was a general remark. You know how in earlier days there was a class of men called evangelists as over against teachers, and how it developed into a school, as we might say, and culminated sorrowfully some twenty-nine years ago. That sorrowful history was the outcome of the disregard of the mind of God expressed by His servants from time to time in the ears of those very men; they refused to listen. It is not exactly that there are such dangers now. Whatever dangers there may be, there are levitical principles to meet them which the Lord has made clear. Scripture is precise as to them, and transgression of those principles will bring about disaster. I am certain of that. That is what we get here. We have the God of measure and we have commandments here which Noah did not transgress; he did what he was told to do. So, when he is to go out of the ark, Scripture says, “God spoke to Noah, saying, Go out of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every animal which is with thee, of all flesh, fowl as well as cattle, and all the creeping things which creep on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and may be fruitful and multiply on the earth. And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. All the animals, all the creeping things, and all the fowl — everything that moves on the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark”. Things were done exactly under [p. 429] the commandment of the Lord. Although he had already determined that the waters had dried up, Noah did not move of himself; it was a question of God and His directions. God would have us move together, and the ark represents the varied features of life housed and carried through. That is the position, but how can we safely undertake going through, without submission to the commandments of the Lord? “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me”, the Lord said (John 14: 21).
Ques In that connection, would there be any significance in the fact that the Lord speaks of Noah by name as many as forty times in these chapters?
JT That is interesting; where you have the constant recurrence of a name of this kind in Scripture surely the Spirit of God has pleasure in it. Another thing we ought to notice in Genesis is the idea of blessing — it begins in chapter 1 and frequently recurs throughout this book. It is a book of covenant, and God’s mind is favourable in every connection. Why should the effect of the blessing be nullified? Surely it is the will of God. God’s disposition is blessing in full result.
JJ Do “seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night”, come in in that way?
JT Yes. Timothy was taken up in relation to prophecy given before, and then the laying on of the hands of the elderhood, and then by the apostle’s own hand; so he was wonderfully marked off and well known. Now, is he answering to it? Noah is answering to his name, so it says, “And Noah built an altar to Jehovah; and took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar. And Jehovah smelled the sweet odour. And Jehovah said in his heart, I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of Man, for the thought of Man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will no more smite every living thing, as I have done.
[p. 430] Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease”. All is founded on Noah’s offerings as answering to his ministry. He was already marked off prophetically by his father, God takes him on, and now the new world is based on what comes out in him.
Ques Does Peter, in the last chapter of the second epistle, bring in the thought of the eighth day, when he says, “Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements, burning with heat, shall melt? But, according to his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness” (2 Peter 3: 12, 13)?
JT Yes, showing what his ministry is, and how significantly he brings in the number eight in relation to the days of Noah in both epistles.
PHH Noah had no commandment to build this altar. Does it show a spontaneous answer in the man himself?
JT It is the idea of fulness that we began with and which runs through Scripture. There is no commandment for it, but it entirely answers to the mind of God. “Jehovah smelled the sweet odour” — how glorious that is! It is entirely in keeping with the whole tenor of Noah’s ministry.
JC-S You have referred several times to the idea of a secret understanding with the Lord in our service. How do you account for a man who acquires a certain place amongst the saints falling out and becoming antagonistic to the testimony? Has he gone beyond the thought of the God of measure?
JT Clearly; and he has got out of hand. In taking up Moses, Jehovah said, “What is that in thy hand?” It was a staff, and God said, “Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent” (Exodus 4: 2, 3). It was out of hand; it was as much as to say, ‘If you get out of My hand, you will get into the hand of the devil’. We may begin well, but if we get out of the Lord’s hand, if we disregard the commandments and limitations that belong to our service, we shall come under the power of the devil.
Rem So God shut Noah in, and let him out.
JT There was pleasure to God in the new world in connection with the sweet savour of Noah’s offering, the establishment of a world fixed on such foundations.
ASL Moses was enjoined to make all the things according to the pattern shown to him on the mount.
JT That is an important word; it conveys an elevated thought.
WSS Doing things according to the pattern and the commandment is one side, but the Lord would bring in the preservative principle into our souls. Noah might have taken credit for this result, but he gives glory to God in his altar.
JT The altar always implies unselfishness.
HFN Why does this instruction as to the altar end with the bringing in of the seasons?
JT I think they imply discipline, that in the new order of things we have discipline. The first great thought is seed time; that has positive blessing in mind in the way of results, the harvest being the counterpart of the seed time. That is, impressions received from God in the soul as seed, have the harvest in mind. The next thing is cold, which would be discipline, I think: “cold and heat”. It will be noticed that the terms are reversed when they are named. Summer is the name we give to heat, and winter is the name we give to cold. Both summer and winter have significant places throughout Scripture, and alternating, they imply that discipline enters into the results of seed-sowing. Then we have day and night, that is, experience with God. One’s day would be experience, like the days of the years of the lives of Jacob and his fathers (Genesis 47: 9).